Johannesburg 12 Pubs got off to a scratchy start when our flight from Frankfurt happened to take place in an oven.  

There’s a lot of cold air at 38,000 feet, which makes it particularly disappointing that they couldn’t manage to get any into our cabin. A cabin so tightly packed that if they’d tried to put one more person in it, I think we would have been obliged to wear clown outfits. 

But even though it was one of the most densely packed planes in the history of aviation, it should have been fuller. For instance it would have been nice if it had all of our luggage in the hold. 

That was ok because at least we had valuable stuff like our bank cards so we could buy new clothes. That was until we put it into an ATM and the machine ate it.

But things improved – after the car air con broke, we got checked into the wrong room at our hotel and a power cut left Johannesburg in darkness. We had some good crisp South African beer and a sleep also helped the grumpiness subside.

We used our rest day to visit the Lion Park just to the North of the City and make the final arrangements for what would be the most well-received leg of the 12^th Pub tour.

In our spare time, the 12th Pub plays with Lions -- we got to pet this wee guy at the Lion Park just out of Johannesburg

Frank did some more breakfast radio interviews with the national radio station 720 and we were also met off the bus at our first stop by Soweto TV.

Frank interviews with Soweto TV

The three pubs at Soweto ensured it was a culturally diverse tour, facilitated kindly by soweto.co.za who put on a bus to take us around Jo’burg for the day.

1 Papi’s

Our first taste of Soweto came at Papi’s place. The only clue that it was a pub was the beer signage outside, which is quite a big hint to be fair…but the rest of the building says house.

The ‘no hand guns’ sign was a bit of a misnomer because in actual fact, security in the area is reputedly very good. In a neighbouring region, there has not been a house burglary for 16 months – mostly because community justice can be fairly harsh and makes for a mighty deterrent.

Where can one take one's gun these days?

The locals were welcoming and took their Lifeline like good patients. Soweto TV also turned up to film the 12 Pub’s visit to the area of 5,000,000 residents.

12th Pub Welcomed to Soweto

A word from our sponsor

2 The Rock

This is one of Soweto’s busiest night spots, with big weekend club sessions spreading through the bar’s three sections, including two downstairs and a massive open area on the roof. Being a pleasant day, we headed for the roof and enjoyed some open air drinking before a quick shower forced us inside.

The 12 Pubs party take in some rays on the Rock rooftop

Tha Black Book was inscribed in Zulu during the Soweto tour

The Shebeen by the Bara Taxi Rank

This place is a Shebeen (shanty town bar) in the truest sense of the word. No sponsorship from a brewery, no bar and indeed no floor. We stopped off here for a taste of sorghum beer, which is served warm and in cardboard cartons.

Kenny and Eammon prepare to drink some Joburg beer. Made of sorghum, served in cardboard and warm -- the trifecta!!

A cross between sour milk and sourer milk, it’s not exactly what we’d crave after a long hot day’s work but then we weren’t really on a long hot day’s work. This was not an official pub and so it didn’t count as one of the 12. The 12^th Pub observes liquor licensing laws.

3 Rotso’s

This was one of those endearing sorts of places that only sell their beer in 750ml (King Brown) bottles. It felt good to hold one again. Some of the lads took on the locals at pool and on our way out, we stopped by some of the street cooks preparing BBQ ‘smiley’ (sheep’s head) and ‘walkie talkie’ (chicken feet and chicken heads).

Pool at Rotso's

4 World of Beer

The brewing giant SAB (makers of Hansa, Lion and Castle Lager among many others) invited us to their brewing showhouse for a quick tour, which explained some of the history of brewing around the world and in South Africa specifically. It was here that we learned that Shebeen was in fact an Irish word for illicit drinking house. Guess we shouldn’t have been surprised by that.

They also had sorghum beer on hand and so we all got a second dose, but this time out of a clay pot. We also got a more conventional beer upstairs at the entertainment venue, where the guys at World of Beer had organised some catering for us too.

5 Ratz

The 12^th Pub is recognised!! On our walk from where the bus dropped us to Ratz, we definitely heard bystanders whispering about the round-the-world pub crawl blowing through town.

And once inside, we were served by the owner – a like-minded type whose bar was one of the first to make the Melville area of Jo’burg a popular nightspot.

Roman insisted on buying our drinks, including a local Castle beverage and a Guinness fused with Kahlua, Irish car bomb style. It was one of those times you regret being on a pub crawl cos you’d like to stay put but we’re strong people.

Roman Insists: Irish car bombs to see us on our way to Cool Runnings

6 Cool Runnings

This was a Jamaican themed pub with an open air back section decked out in bamboo. This stop coincided with the end of the workday and the crowd began to grow as we eyed the second half of the Jo’burg tour. The Jamaican theme ran to drinks, with some members of the crawl spotted bearing drinks resembling the Rasta flag.

Cool Runnings had a good breezy atmosphere for afternoon drinking

7 Jolly Roger

A cool pub which had a healthy after work crowd, including a few new heads for the 12 Pubs crawl. After Roman had insisted we challenge Jolly Roger’s owner (a mate of his) to match his generosity, we did as we were told and it worked quite well, with a tray of drinks appearing soon after.

We should have known it would succeed. His penchant for silly things was fully evident in his attire, as he sported some sort of fancy dress mask that would have made you think it was a theme night in the bar if it wasn’t for everyone else’s conventional appearance.

Rice & Walters emerge from their offices and join the 12 pubs at the Jolly Roger

8 Zoo Lake Bowling Club

This is possibly the first time that a 12 Pubs of Christmas has swung by a lawn bowls club. This place stocks beers out of Steve Gilroy's 'Gilroy' brewery, from which we had a serve of his Gilroy Serious Ale. The charismatic Steve and Chris, who runs the bowling club shouted at their 300+ patrons until they all applauded the 12^th Pub crawl. Disingenuous applause doesn’t feel as empty as you might think.

Our friend is also very likely to scoop the honour of being the barman who most resembles Santa, unless Hong Kong or Perth produce something spectacular.

Santa, how did you know? That's exacty what I wanted for Christmas

9 Bushveld Pub and Diner

At this stage, the 12^th Pub could comfortably acknowledge that Jo’burg had embraced the concept more than any other city…including Dublin. Frank’s breakfast radio interviews had done the trick and yet another owner laid on some first class hospitality.

The 12^th Pub packed into the underground bar and we would have thought the business we brought him was good repayment for the warm welcome except Wally Gibson refused to take a cent from anyone while we were there. That must have been a costly exercise because by this time, numbers were climbing.

The 12 Pubs of Christmas gets shouted a round by Wally Gibson (centre)

10 Brazen Head

Named after the spot that proclaims to be Dublin’s oldest pub, this is a popular weeknight, post-work watering hole for locals from the Fourways area. Johannesburg is home to a number of chain pubs and this is one of them but it’s a good spot for conversing with the locals.

They also serve a ‘hand grenade’ for consumption by stupid people.

Three people were spotted drinking hand grenades. You take out the 'pin' (shot of Tequila), the Jagermeister drops into the red bull and after drinking that, you swallow the pin. Silly stuff, really

Liars: These people said they would follow us to pub 11 and they didn't

11 Cobblestones

Cobblestones can be found in the massive Monte Casino

This pub is contained within the massive and impressive Monte casino complex. The place was hopping by this stage of the evening and it's fair to say a crowd was just what we needed. The complex is home to several restaurants, bars and a luxury hotel.

12 Billy the Bum’s

After some ‘enthusiastic’ singing/humming/mumbling during the bus journey to Billy the Bum’s, the 12^th Pub brought down the curtain on its African mission in the bustling Fourways bar. There were plenty of pretty types on hand to celebrate the leg’s conclusion. Well…they were just celebrating really, I’m not sure that they knew what.

Of course it’s at the 12^th Pub that things are most likely to go missing and so it was here, with a wallet and several revellers slipping away. The wallet was returned but the crawlers were sadly lost to the night.

Although there were many more to have completed the Jo'burg 12 Pubs, they couldn't be found come picture time. History will judge them harshly. Pictured here are us two with (L to R) Owen, Bongani and John

After knocking over Hong Kong on Monday night, the 12^th Pub now eyes a finale in Perth this Thursday, December 20.

Hong Kong itself was a raging success, with an impromptu ‘pub’ (Hong Kong football club) gate-crashing the line-up and pushing us out to 13 pubs for Asia. We arrived back into the hotel at 7am this morning, having broken the Buenos Aires record for the longest instalment.

Bed was a fairly urgent destination at that stage so we sadly had to decline the fruit basket that the hotel staff were quite certain we should have at that time. 

A full report will follow but for now, the Perth schedule. In another 12^th Pub record, this line-up includes the most bars beginning with ‘The’.

3.00pm: Newport Hotel

3.40pm: Sail & Anchor

4.20pm: Fremantle Working Man’s Club

5.00pm: The Left Bank

5.40pm: The Railway Hotel

6.35pm: OBH

7.20pm: The Claremont

8.10pm: The Subi

8.45pm: The Irish Club

9.35pm: The Queens

10.15pm: The Flying Scotsman

11.10pm: The Paddington Ale House

PS - Jo'burg report to be posted before tomorrow's flight to Perth

Dublin's Grafton street lit up by Christmas

After a marathon journey from Buenos Aires to Dublin, the 12^th Pub was met with some more ‘Christmasy’ weather than what we’d seen in South America. 

Squally showers, grey skies and fleeting daylight hours made a familiar welcome home…as did the good tea. 

Saturday December 8 was a recuperation day of sorts, though last minute itinerary details were still to be bedded down and the Buenos Aires report was due on-line. Having knocked off those tasks, the 12^th Pub rushed excitedly to bed (or couch, as the case may be) at about 2am, with visions of a Dublin 12 Pubs dancing in our heads. 

After sleeping a little later than had been planned, we convened at Portobello Harbour for a familiar trek across the canal and onto South Richmond rd, bound for the Camden and Wexford St areas. 

Those brave soldiers who joined for pub one and therefore qualified themselves to complete the Dublin leg included Enda, Keane, Conor, Gary, Sarah, Fiona, Edel, Ronan, Emma, Ben and Simon. Guy Granger was mistakenly delivered to the wrong pub and missed the start but backtracked from pub two and also completed his commitments. 

Conor noted that he would not be able to complete the 12 Pubs because he was due on the evening training for Cork, where he had work the next day. 

On an even more sombre note, the Dublin leg also represented the first major scare for the ‘black book’, which contains signatures and messages of support from every bar tender that has served us throughout the tour. It was left at O’Donogues and went missing for 40 heart-stopping minutes before an intrepid away party tracked it down in a hotel room off Grafton St. 

1. Anseo

Anseo: Home of the Dublin roll call

What better place to start the Dublin leg than a pub named after the Irish word for ‘present’? With Christmas trees being flogged outside the front door, this was the perfect pub to call the roll and see who among the brave talkers were actually showing the fortitude they’d hinted at when the Dublin date was first announced. 

We were expecting close to a thousand people based on the number who’d said they were in, but we were not surprised to see a more modest showing than that. The gift of the gab was in plentiful supply this festive season in Dublin, but the gift of presence was not necessarily so (at least until the later stages of the crawl). 

Anseo had opened their doors early to accommodate the 3pm start and it was good to be back amid its unassuming and familiar environs.  

Dublin Faithful: The congregation that observed their Sunday obligations

2. Whelan’s

Another bar that opened early but this was even better because fortified wooden gates still concealed the entrance when we arrived. They creaked open like Dungeon doors to reveal yet another familiar playground.  

The privilege of getting in the door early was reinforced by the smell of disinfectant still hanging in the air.  

Open Up: Whelan's relents to 12th Pub knocking

It was here that we introduced our fellow revellers to Lifeline hangover defence and it was also here that our Cork-bound working friend crumbled against the tide of sentiment suggesting that he should take the morning train to Cork rather than the evening one. 

It must be said that this sentiment was propagated most fervently by a fella who is currently ‘between jobs’ and as a fellow bystander quipped, ‘for all he knew, it was easy to get up for early morning trains’. Although the 12^th Pub suspected he’d lose his way eventually, we were stunned that his resolve was broken as early as pub two. 

Optimist: Conor had honestly thought that he and his laptop would be on the 10pm train, God bless him

3. Doheny & Nesbitt

In one of the longest walks of the day, the 12^th Pub moved to Baggot St for a jar at Doheny’s. With decidedly wintry conditions prevailing outside, the cosy confines of this pub were just the tonic as we colonised the snugs and partitions along the bar. 

With numbers having climbed to about 15, people from different circles were feeling each other out with the usual conversational pieces about jobs, sport and weather but as the afternoon unfolded and the pub count grew, less serious conversational topics were well on the way. 

4. O’Donoghues

As it grew dark outside, we left Doheny’s for a quick walk to O’Donaghue’s, via a construction site populated by gentlemen who had the grave misfortune of working outside a pub on a Sunday (and indeed, on the route to another pub). Our hearts wept. 

O’Donoghue’s is a great pub for shouting over the din of a crowd so it was good to see they already had one in residence as we encountered the first full bar of the evening. This is also a good pub for standing because the descent onto one of those miniature stools can be an ear-popper. 

As with Doheny and Nesbitt, this is one of Dublin’s more famed pubs. They were both delighted to host the 12^th Pub and sign our black book – no doubt understanding that we are now a worldwide barometer by which they can judge the ongoing relevance of their bar. 

The Black Book The Black Book is a bible-sized register which was bought at a stationery store near the foot of the Ritz Carlton in Chicago before we kicked off the world tour at the hotel’s 12th floor bar.  It has been signed by every bar tender that has served us on the trip. Because both members of the 12th Pub have a poor record with loose items such as keys, phones and wallets, maintaining the Black Book has been a psychologically taxing exercise.  What’s worse, our ability to retain items is inversely proportional to their value. For example, we have very rarely lost copper coins from out of our pockets, receipts for drinks or expired bus tickets. What we have lost are hotel security cards, airline boarding passes, passports, memory sticks and keys.  With every signature that we capture in the book, the more valuable it becomes. Every time a bar tender signs it, therefore, the more elusive it becomes. It’s too big to slip through our fingers and yet it’s almost certainly bound to. We are very afraid.

The Black Book Is Lost in Dublin With Frank in charge of our most expensive equipment – the video camera – it has fallen to Eammon to act as custodian of the Black Book…a disastrous prospect.  On the approach to the Long Stone, he was asked why he did not have a jacket to wear between pubs. In explaining that he was paranoid about losing it and already had enough stuff to remember, he gestured to the book to highlight the burden of responsibility he already bore. ‘cept there was nothing to gesture to. The Black Book had not just been left behind at O’Donoghues but in thinking he was doing us a favour, the barman had given it to four ‘members’ of the crawling party. It just so happens that those members were an American quartet who we’d met randomly and who had not really committed to catching up with us at all. Instead they headed back to their hotel off Grafton St with the most valuable manuscript on the St Stephen’s Green side of the Book of Kells.  Panicking ensued. Heads dropped. Most alarmingly, our appetite for beer was lost along with the book.  But two friends of the 12th Pub remembered the Americans’ first names and knew they were in a hotel near Grafton St. Not much to go on but they trudged into the night and 25 minutes later returned to the Long Stone with the book in hand. Our appetite for beer returned.

5. The Long Stone

At one stage this was the worst pub of the tour. It was grey and lifeless and full of prosaic happy faces with no right to be in good spirits. Then it became one of the most festive and good-humoured pubs in the world. 

The Long Stone: During it's good-humoured, happy phase

This pub shall forever be linked to the emotional roller coaster that was the loss and rediscovery of the Black Book. 

Happy Campers: Dara, Jenny, Neil and Karl celebrate the return of the black book

6. Mulligan’s

The Poolbeg St pub is one of the few that manages to combine quaint popularity with credibility. Often spoken of in the sort of glowing touristy terms that would make a sceptic cringe at how banal and clichéd it might be, this place still has a beating heart. 

By this stage, the Dublin 12 Pubs was building serious momentum and we had good numbers on board…including the Black Book, which could be seen in this dark pub because of the white knuckles wrapped around it. 

Even people with a history of aversion to Guinness sampled the fare on offer here as the owner behind the bar dispensed pint after pint of it.

Guinness Hater: Frank finds some blackness in his heart

7. The Porterhouse

Temple Bar is one of Dublin’s most famous nightspots and so it was a critical stopover for the 12^th Pub’s Dublin leg. But while the centre of Temple Bar can seem more like Essex, bars on its fringe retain a Dublin feel to them.

Discerning: The Porterhouse bouncers keep out the riff-raff

About 12 months after conceiving of the 12^th Pub concept in this bar, we returned with some hungry companions to fuel up for the second leg of our Irish odyssey. 

With three floors, a great kitchen, hundreds of beers, bottles on the walls and brewing kettles installed about the place…this is a fine bar for combining food and drink, which made it the perfect halfway house. It was here that we were joined by stragglers for the second half and also by Frank’s parents, who spoke with apparent conviction about going home after this one stop but who stayed on until the end.

McNally Rallies: Frank's cousins and brother flank his folks, who joined at Porterhouse

Porterhouse: Stragglers like Nalini were not castigated, even by stayers like Gary

More Porterhouse Love: The late appearance of Kev (left) is also overlooked

Move across the Liffey: While there are many great pubs on the northside of Dublin, they are not in the same prolific supply around the city centre as those in the south. Nevertheless, there remain some fine establishments and so the 12^th Pub crossed the iconic Ha’penny bridge (something 22% of Dubliners have never done) and visited two on the Quays.  

The Gardai model 12th Pub badges and probably try to poach the sleuths who recovered the black book (Ben, left and Sarah, right)

8. Sin E

We could have been in a garden shed at this stage and it would still have been a memorable stop. But Sin E is a place that should tempt more lazy southsiders across the Liffey for the night.

Frank and Sin E's barman with two revellers that we stole from another pub

The bar staff were cool, the vibe relaxed and the atmosphere was just right for ignition by a high-spirited pub crawl.

Help Yourself: A few 12th Pubbers step behind the bar at Sin E

9. The Lotts

The Irish Independent’s reputation is safe – take a bow Lisa Jewell. 

After the Independent journalist committed herself to join us on the crawl some six weeks ago, the 12^th Pub proposed that the integrity of Ireland’s most read daily broadsheet was now in her custody. Honour the engagement and the paper’s integrity remained intact but fail… Well, Tony O’Reilly can rest easy because his paper has survived the most searching examination in the history of journalism. 

Bravo!: Lisa Jewell (right) sets down a marker for journalists everywhere

The Lotts is split into a bar and a rather plush looking café out the back. By this stage, there weren’t many coffee drinkers in attendance so we populated both areas and braced ourselves for the move into double figures. 

Official 12 Pubs make-up artist, Hillary makes a belated appearance

10. Kehoe’s

Kehoe’s seems particularly popular with people from Cork, which goes to show the good taste of the rebel county.  

Although it has all the trappings of an old man’s pub, its location on South Anne St, its common touch appeal (and perhaps the prevalence of Cork men and women) have made it a popular city centre drinking hole. The old-school-meets-contemporary-scene fusion works well.  

But although many literary greats have frequented this pub through the ages, there is no lasting eloquence about the place…at least not in so far as the dialogue spouting from members of the 12^th Pub party would suggest. 

Ronan: Portlaoise's grumpiest man finally arrives after forgetting the 12 pubs was on and getting a late train to catch up with us

11. Bruxelles

This bar can sometime be too packed but by this late on a Sunday evening, we were able to drink in good comfort. Although perhaps not as much comfort for those whose minds must have been starting to grapple with the prospect of tomorrow morning’s journey to work (be it in Dublin or Cork). 

It transpires that Bruxelles has a late license on Sunday and if we had have known that, we would have made it the last stop. It has a cool look inside and it’s the sort of bar where the occupants realise that when it’s this crowded, you’re sometimes going to have to move to help people get to and from the bar. 

Bruxelles fills up with 12 Pubbers

12. Café En Seine

We were criticised heavily for choosing this as our last bar and what can we say…Mea Culpa. This had to appear on the crawl because it is an incredible looking bar but it would have been better placed early on because the ambience really lets down the décor. 

Even the euphoria that accompanies the closing stages of a 12 Pubs of Christmas dissipated quickly into the cavernous vacuum of this bar, where the only thing more wooden than the funky chandeliers was the atmosphere. 

Buenos Aires was a triumph in preposterousness. After flying down from Chicago via Miami, we arrived in Buenos Aires at 8am on the morning of Tuesday December 4, completed the 12 Pubs on Wednesday and flew out on Thursday evening (20 odd hours in the air to Dublin, plus stopovers in Miami and Atlanta).

It was an adrenalin-rich stop, beginning with some nasty turbulence on the approach to Buenos Aires, including two disturbing freefalls which gave voice to passenger concerns that we might be prematurely reacquainted with the ground (i.e. screaming).

The night of the 12^th Pub was characterised by some swashbuckling taxi driving through the streets of Buenos Aires and a last-second panic to find a 12^th Bar as Buenos Aires closed shop for the night.

Our final day was blighted by a (Irish) passport loss and an inexplicable acceleration in the time continuum that left us further from the airport than we’d like to have been as check-in time approached.

But although tinsel was in rare supply, the town of Buenos Aires seems to be naturally convivial, even if Christmas doesn’t create its own atmosphere.

Some late night occupancy of the resident’s bar at the Millhouse Hostel on Tuesday saw Frank recruit some punters willing to have a go at Wednesday’s 12 Pubs.

No-one will be surprised to hear that three Australian lads and two English were among those to put their hands up. Three Brazilians also threw their hat in the ring. A lying Irish girl said she’d participate but went to ground when it came time to assemble in the same resident’s bar the next afternoon at 4.30pm.

Can you pick your own countrymen?: Pictured are 1 Argentinean, 1 Irishman, I Englishman and 2 Aussies, can you match the nationality to the noggin?

With some famous Argentinean steak on board to fuel the exercise, we set off with an itinerary that took in a vast range of local bars.

1. Bar Britanico

A bright pub with plenty of tables and chairs, which seemed to fit nicely with what was a relaxed (and we thought safe) approach to the BA 12 Pubs. This lackadaisical psychology contributed to what became a mad panic several hours later, when we needed a lock-in to get bar 11 and some local wisdom to find an open bar for number 12.

Leisurely Start: Casual kick off at Bar Britanico

It was at Britanico that we road tested our ‘note to bar tenders’. You see, we’re having every bar tender of the tour sign a message in our black book but with little confidence in our own Spanish, we recruited a local to write an explanatory note that we could pass to those who served us. We were relieved to see the barman smile and produce a pen because we really had no way of knowing what the message said until now.

Rule Britanico: Our note to bar tenders elicits desired response

2. El Federal

This bar was in much the same style as Britanico, only with shelled peanuts and a more ornate bar. It was here that the 12^th Pub was joined by the oldest guests of the tour, when some octogenarians swelled our ranks as we left El Federal for stop three. They seemed destined for the same place as us until just shy of arrival, they swerved onto a waiting bus and were whisked away to the next stop of their own bar crawl.

Recruitment Drive: 12th Pub targets experience for next leg

3. Gibraltar  

Caption: Unnecessary

This was a neat bar, although we suspect it was designed to resemble English and Irish ones. A mezzanine room above the bar was decorated as a library/sitting room but seemed to be out-of-bounds. The bar dispensed some locally brewed beers, including a bitter that was unfortunately served from a cool looking tap. We were sucked in by the fancy hardware and ordered a pint before we knew it was attached to a keg of bitter. But as Bitters go, this one was actually quite good. 

Bitter Pill: Shiny taps suck 12th Pub into ordering a bitter

Move to Centro: After three bars in San Telmo, we filed into cabs for a ride back to Centro, which was the neighbourhood in which our hostel was based. This gave the Aussie contingent an opportunity to go to base and swap flip-flops and shorts for attire more befitting of this cultural exploration (we’d assumed they’d have safari suits but they made do with jeans and shirts).

4. Café Tortoni

You knew it was coming…and yes here it is at pub four – the 12^th Pub gets smarmy. Café Tortoni was already sporting a handsome queue, though we suspect most of its constituents were in it for coffee or afternoon tea. After remonstrations with the doorman, our group of 10 was allowed in – though we were split into three tables and dispersed to different corners of the floor. The table service wasn’t brisk and a race broke out to see who could get served first. The southern hemisphere table sealed it, with two aussies and a kiwi taking line honours. It was worth the wait too, with the ‘Tanque’ beer providing very good victory spoils.

5. Deep Blue

Although in the same neighbourhood, this bar was taxi distance too. It took us passed the iconic Obelisk, the tip of which was now ablaze, signalling the arrival of a long night in the capital.

Sideways glances at Tortoni were all the evidence the Australians needed to see that dress requirements were on the rise and so they detoured to the hostel en route to Deep Blue. This snookered the remaining members of the party into a two-beer stop at the bar – one taken while waiting and another to coincide with our returned comrades. Fortunately there was a happy hour deal offering 2 for 1. Providence!

Waiting Game: English lads, Harry and Chris endure tedious wait with beer and Brazilian, Debora. It was tough going.

Frank may have inadvertently invited a lady of the night on the pub crawl at this stop but after a few sips of the beer we bought her, I think she copped that this party was not going to provide much business. Either that or she just didn’t like us.

6. The Kilkenny

An Irish bar in name and décor but with a quite different feel about it to the ones we’ve come to know. This was extremely popular with the Brazilians – they’d obviously had a good night here before. A locally brewed stout at this bar carried very rich coffee tones and made a nice departure from the lagers that had provided most of the evening’s fare.

At Deep Blue and Kilkenny, we were joined by an Israeli, three Argentineans and a Columbian as the crawl began to develop a momentum of its own. A momentum not entirely fuelled by love for beer, per se…read on.